The ÃŽle des Cygnes or ÃŽle Maquerelle was an island on the river
Seine
)
, mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur
, mouth_coordinates =
, mouth_elevation =
, progression =
, river_system = Seine basin
, basin_size =
, tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle
, tributarie ...
in Paris. It was in the north-west part of the
7th arrondissement, between
rue de l'Université
''Ruta graveolens'', commonly known as rue, common rue or herb-of-grace, is a species of ''Ruta'' grown as an ornamental plant and herb. It is native to the Balkan Peninsula. It is grown throughout the world in gardens, especially for its bluis ...
and the Seine, the
Invalides
The Hôtel des Invalides ( en, "house of invalids"), commonly called Les Invalides (), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as ...
and the
Champ de Mars
The Champ de Mars (; en, Field of Mars) is a large public greenspace in Paris, France, located in the seventh ''arrondissement'', between the Eiffel Tower to the northwest and the École Militaire to the southeast. The park is named after the ...
. The
Musée du quai Branly is located on it.
It was formed by the merger of the islets known as île des Treilles, île aux Vaches, île Maquerelle, île de Jérusalem and île de Longchamp, and was merged into the ''rive gauche'' of the Seine at the end of the 18th century.
History
An oak
pirogue
A pirogue ( or ), also called a piragua or piraga, is any of various small boats, particularly dugouts and native canoes. The word is French and is derived from Spanish , which comes from the Carib '. Description
The term 'pirogue' does n ...
, built with fir plugs, discovered in August 1806 during the construction of the footings for
Pont d'Iéna
Pont d'Iéna ("Jena Bridge") is a bridge spanning the River Seine in Paris. It links the Eiffel Tower on the Left Bank to the district of Trocadéro on the Right Bank.
History
In 1807, by an imperial decree issued in Warsaw, Napoleon I order ...
, was thought to be a Norman boat dating to the
Siege of Paris in 885/86, although some scholars believe that it may have dated to the
Sequani
The Sequani were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the upper river basin of the Arar river (Saône), the valley of the Doubs and the Jura Mountains during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Name
They are mentioned as ''Sequanos'' by Caesar (mid-1s ...
tribe from the first century B.C.
In the 13th century the peasants of
Chaillot
The 16th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''seizième''.
The arrondissement includes part of the Arc de Tr ...
on the opposite bank had the right to graze their cattle on the île Maquerelle, in exchange for a payment in kind paid to the
Abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
The conce ...
. The right to ''
fermage
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...
'' was 20
livres
The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France.
The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...
in 1492, and the ''bail de l'herbe'' rose to 27 livres in 1551. In 1572 1,200 victims of the
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (french: Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy) in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French War ...
were buried here. The island was renamed ÃŽle des Cygnes after the
swan
Swans are birds of the family (biology), family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the goose, geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form t ...
s placed there by a royal decree of 16 October 1676. The ''garde-cygnes'' were in charge of looking after them "from
pont de Saint-Cloud
The pont de Saint-Cloud (''Saint-Cloud Bridge'') is a French bridge constructed of metal which crosses the Seine between the communes of Boulogne-Billancourt and Saint-Cloud in the French department of Hauts-de-Seine.
The first pont de Saint-Cloud ...
as far as
Saint-Maur and Corbeil" during the winter. The garde-cygnes's house was inventoried among the
royal building accounts. The island was also the site of the ministry of public works
dépôt des marbres.
The king finally ceded the island to the city of Paris on 21 March 1722.
[Lucien
Lazar]
Inventaire sommaire de la collection Lazare-Montassier pp.87-88
Imprimerie Nouvelle (association ouvrière) 1899 Around 1731 it was the site of a lodge where wood was cut into logs and stored for firewood, carpentry or boat repairs. At this time the island was linked to the rive gauche on its eastern extremity by the "pont des Cignes" or "pont rouge".
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
promenaded on the island.
Letters patent
Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, titl ...
allowing the City of Paris to fill in the channel separating île des Cygnes from the Gros-Caillou quarter were signed on 20 June 1773,
and a partial filling-in of the channel is reported in 1780. In 1782 the island was the site of a lamp-oil factory On 11 April 1786 a police decree ordered that "all offal of bulls, cows and sheep continue to be brought to the île des Cygnes to be prepared and cooked there as is the custom". In 1789, the brothers Jacques and Augustin Charles Périer were commissioned by the city of Paris to set up
steam mills on the island to meet the flour shortage due to the Seine's winter water levels being too low to power its watermills. Their installation was made up of two steam engines with twelve driving wheels, each 1.95m in diameter. It opened on 30 November 1790 in the presence of the mayor. In 1802-1803 the American inventor
Robert Fulton
Robert Fulton (November 14, 1765 – February 24, 1815) was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the world's first commercially successful steamboat, the (also known as ''Clermont''). In 1807, that steamboat ...
conducted his experiments on steam navigation from the island. In 1812, during the construction of the
pont d'Iéna
Pont d'Iéna ("Jena Bridge") is a bridge spanning the River Seine in Paris. It links the Eiffel Tower on the Left Bank to the district of Trocadéro on the Right Bank.
History
In 1807, by an imperial decree issued in Warsaw, Napoleon I order ...
, the rest of the channel was filled in.
[Léon de Lanzac de Laborie]
Paris sous Napoléon, tome 2, p.119
Plon, 1905
Notes
External links
ÃŽle Maquerelle or ÃŽle des Cygnes, on the Atlas de Trudaine of Paris 1745, 1780
Plan de Turgot, planche 20 ; Gros caillou and Ile des cygnes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ile Des Cygnes (Former Island)
7th arrondissement of Paris
Cygnes
Cygnes